L.A. Water And Power Workers Go To Strip Club As Rainy Day 'Tradition'

The report couldn't have come at a more heated time -- when the city of Los Angeles is financially under water and Department of Water and Power workers are getting a raise, not to mention a near-five-percent rate hike from electricity customers: CBS2 News found DWP workers drinking, attending a strip club, and napping on the job.

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The May sweeps investigation by reporter David Goldstein spotted a trio of DWP "linemen," who can't work on transmission lines in inclement weather, playing in the rain -- drinking beers while driving and hanging out in a park, spending more than two hours in a strip club, and napping. Another worker told the station that going to the Alameda Strip club in Vernon on rainy days was "maybe tradition" for the workers.

When told the mayor would see CBS2's evidence of workers drinking on the job, one of the subjects said, "I don't give a (expletive) what u do."

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who appoints the commission that oversees the DWP and who has supported workers' raises and a massive DWP rate hike, said the report "kind of boggles the mind."

CBS2 states the workers make near-six-figure salaries. In typical DWP fashion, its public information reps -- and these are also people who work at the pleasure of you, the citizens -- declined to take a look at the video after the station offered it up. But DWP officials did say the matter was under review.

Dennis Romero is an L.A. Weekly staff writer. He formerly worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian and, as a young stringer, the New York Times.